How are you keeping employees from stealing? Working for cash - not reporting it.

jcooper

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Cleaned for some wonderful "gray hairs" a few weeks ago. Super nice people, happy to work for them. Start blabbing away with the fellow and he informs me how he didn't like the last "large(but not the largest)" franchise they had out for the cleaning.

Guys cleaned the upstairs, like the invoice said. Cleaned the downstairs, deodorized & protected for cash. Custy didn't like this, but still took the deal and I don't blame him.

As someone hopeful of getting an employee(not family) someday, I found this very disappointing...

Hard and expensive enough to get the work and these guys are stealing for the boss, his family, the biz, etc.



Other than after cleaning calls how would an owner/boss even know? What are you doing to stop theft?


Have a great Christmas, fellas(and ladies)...
 

Bob Pruitt

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Other than after cleaning calls how would an owner/boss even know? What are you doing to stop theft?
Your good Customer will call and let you know your Tech sold the fabric protection or cleaned the couch or whatever for off the books cash. When they get back to the office with your van you ask for the keys and then you could hand them a check or mail it to them.
 
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icleancarpetz

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Dishonesty has a way of surfacing to the top eventually whether sooner or later but rest a sure it will surface. At which time when it does, skim the surface and get rid of them.
Crooks, thieves and liars will always be a challenge to every business. When it is find out, fire them.

This whole country and it’s so called leaders, politicians are all liars, thieves or crooks. Heck this industry is full of them. So you will always be among them. Keep yourself clean and eventually you will be rewarded and also handed down a silver plate with these crooks on it for you to dispose of the plate to the trash.
 
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BIG WOOD

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On the first day of hiring, I'd put a list of all the different dishonest ways that employees work for the boss, and tell them that it's not allowed and every job will be followed up with. Once they know that you're aware of how theft in our business is performed, that'll make them think twice about doing it, because they know you're watching and following up on every job.
 

encapman

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In 35 years of hiring employees, I've always hired friends. We run our company like a small family. Trust is at the core. Not to say everyone's been 100% perfect. I've had to let go of some through the years who didn't work out. Yet we've never experienced a dishonest employee. And we've found a way to remain friends with everyone who's ever worked with us. Hiring friends and treating them like family has served us well. Our employees seem to appreciate the work environment, Nancy and I love interacting with our team, and I think it spirit spills over to our customers too.
 
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FB7777

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Rick and I followed the same path

To answer the original question, the best way is to hire friends, family or friend referrals


In my early days of JanSan, that wasn't often possible and had my share of 'theft'

It came in the form of time theft... working 1.5 hours on a job I paid 3 hours to complete, those are easy to resolve. Know their routine and then show up and catch them in the act

But I've always stayed a small 2 truck shop....Never had the stomach for hiring unknowns and unleashing them on my customers,
 

Mikey P

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Agreed.

I do let my guys take the trucks home on occasion or clean for thier family's.

They rairly do.


I think they make more growing weed than to mess around side jobbing.
 
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Ross Martin
Try having a vending company.

When I finally fired a route driver and started running the route again myself it went up $1,200.00 a week.

I knew he was skimming, but had not idea it was that much.
 
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BIG WOOD

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My parents owned a gas station for 12years. For about 6of those years, the profit was very low on cigarretes. They finally fired a lady who worked there that whole time and profit more than tripled.

This was back in the day when vcrs were used to record security cameras. She had access to those vcrs
 

Jim Pemberton

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All you can do is try to keep the losses minimized; sadly there are people everywhere who wouldn't steal from your wallet who somehow don't think stealing "cash services" is the same thing.

Just this year two of my customers were stolen from in very large amounts by their children who worked for them. One was a man's son who had developed an opiod addiction; the other a daughter who managed the business and had a shopping addiction. The parents were emotionally as well as financially devastated.

Each were in their early 40's, with previous clean records, children of their own, church attendance, etc.

Its sad, but true, that you need to run your businesses carefully and watch everything, no matter who you employ.
 
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FB7777

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All you can do is try to keep the losses minimized; sadly there are people everywhere who wouldn't steal from your wallet who somehow don't think stealing "cash services" is the same thing.

Just this year two of my customers were stolen from in very large amounts by their children who worked for them. One was a man's son who had developed an opiod addiction; the other a daughter who managed the business and had a shopping addiction. The parents were emotionally as well as financially devastated.

Each were in their early 40's, with previous clean records, children of their own, church attendance, etc.

Its sad, but true, that you need to run your businesses carefully and watch everything, no matter who you employ.
Lee on Jim's computer:stir:
 

J Scott W

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Our company always did follow up calls 1 to 3 days after a cleaning. When I called, I would reference the word that was done in specific terms (i.e "thank you for trusting us to clean your living room and hallway.) I also try to plant seeds for future work. "Did you know that we also clean tile floors." Unless the customer was a willing participant in the scheme, they might reveal something different about the scope of work that was done.
 

Jim Pemberton

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While I have "the floor"

Its not just the "guys on the truck" who steal from the company. Watch the "gal (or guy) at the desk". Lot's of people who cash checks and pay bills find ways to skim off some in between.
 

Jim Pemberton

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Yeah .. like the White Magic lady !!

I had forgotten that. It was a very sad story.

I had in mind some "mom and pop" cleaners where "mom" got tired of working for nothing, or needed to get a "real job" to take care of the family, and so they hired a church member, daughter, neighbor, someone they thought they could trust.

The way the scam starts is the person they hire rapidly gets "good" at doing all the management and customer relations tasks, and reassures the owners that she can take care of more things for them and they don't have to worry about all the details anymore, they can just relax and leave it to her.

Its so common that I can almost complete the conversation word for word as it progresses when I'm called by the crushed company owner once they discover the betrayal.

We live in a complicated world, where people are driven to do things they wouldn't imagine just a few years back by financial pressures they create and can't escape easily.

Sad stuff, but just be careful with those who you let "handle the books".
 

Spurlington

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Customers who participate in this cash deal 9 times out of 10 wont say anything. Theyre making out as well. What might be a good idea is to add wording to your invoice in highlight that says," Please report any unethical offers made by the tecnician for a full refund on his or her offer.'' With that on the invoice/work order .. no tech in his right mind would make any cash offers.
 
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